Design Trust 2026 April Cycle Grant Recipients | October Cycle Call for Grants themed “Technology as Community”

Since its establishment in 2014, Design Trust has been offering grants to individual designers, curators, collectives as well as non-profit organisations, supporting over 264 research projects supported by Seed & Feature Grants and Fellowship schemes. To continue advocating for the positive role of design facing the ever-changing context of urgent topics, the theme for the upcoming grants cycle of  October 2026 for applications for Design Trust Seed Grant and Feature Grant will be “Technology as Community”, exploring how the evolving technology landscape may inform new opportunities for design research, heritage activation, industrial design and material innovation to engage a wider community. By reframing digital and physical tools as collaborative platform, the theme “Technology as Community” encourages projects that mobilise data-driven insights and immersive media tools to further advocate the positive role of design for the community. Design Trust Seed Grant and Feature Grant schemes support projects examining innovative, thought-provoking investigations in various design disciplines including but not limited to graphics, media, wearables, architecture to the built environment, as well as focused research on local and regional design archives. Share with us your ideas and proposals by October 20^th 2026!

We are also pleased to announce the Grant Recipients from the 2026 April grant cycle including research topics on urban culture, marine technology, digital archive and ecological study.

Design Trust offers grants to individual designers, curators, collectives and non-profit organisations for projects and activities that are relevant to various design disciplines. These grants support projects relevant to the context and content of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.  Cities within the Greater Bay Area include: the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, and the nine municipalities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province. We support innovative, thought-provoking investigations in various design disciplines from graphics, media, wearables, architecture to the built environment; and actively aim to accelerate creative design and research development of meaningful projects. These projects demonstrate originality, criticality and urgency of the research topic, and include but are not limited to: exhibitions, research projects and creative installations, that can benefit and further advocate the positive role of design in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

DESIGN TRUST SEED GRANT fosters a culture of experimentation, testing and sharing. It is awarded to individuals seeking to kick-start a meaningful and intellectual project with social, educational, economical or environmental impact for communities. Seed Grants may support applicants who have a project in the pipeline that needs additional resources, as well as emerging designers, and young scholars. Design Trust highly encourages applicants from the region to international applicants to apply for this grant to support their research projects and prototypes focusing on Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area issues to be showcased at international venues, symposium or international biennales, and in return mutually benefit the public realm and knowledge exchange in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

DESIGN TRUST FEATURE GRANT fosters cross-disciplinary projects focusing on the Greater Bay Area region. Projects awarded have a wide reaching audience and may be sited in an exhibition or biennale venue with international recognition and standing. This grant supports international exchanges between a Hong Kong-/ China- based collective with an international renowned cultural institution. It aims to excel, share and build new knowledge and unique positions on the value of design, critical research and provocative outcome. Applicants are also encouraged to submit critical and creative ongoing research proposals that advance design competency for the benefit of the public.

Grant Recipients from the 2026 April Cycle:

“Atlas of Urban Semiotics” by Diana Pang and Mart Van De Ven develops an interactive platform celebrating Hong Kong's 4,000+ street names as living cultural artefacts, revealing colonial legacies, geomantic traditions, and gender imbalances embedded in our roads through immersive, research-backed spatial storytelling. The Atlas serves as both a public educational resource and a critical design intervention, revealing how naming conventions shape our perception of urban space. It preserves intangible heritage while empowering the public to explore the systemic biases and cultural dreams etched in the very fabric of their neighbourhoods.

“Urban Ethnobotanist: Encounters with Place, Plants, and People” by Aki Lee explores the visual transformation of a community-based ethnobotanical archive of 107 plants into an open digital platform. The archive negotiates the epistemological position of embedded knowledge, questioning how knowledge is shaped, unlearned, and re-archived, and how locally rooted knowledge travels responsibly into international contexts, reshaping how communities relate to place, health, and ecological memory, making tacit ecological wisdom navigable towards an urban ecological future.

“Water Technologies as Community: Rafts, Beacons, and Littoral Narratives” by Jiyuan Sun brings together two newly commissioned works in Macau to explore how waterborne technologies through drifting, navigation, and infrastructure shape community, memory, and regional circulation across the Greater Bay Area. By approaching the raft and the beacon as architectural and infrastructural forms rather than isolated objects, the project explores how communities are organized through water, space, and mobility. The project will be presented in an exhibition in Macau in November 2026 followed by public programmes in Shunde and Guangzhou.

“Biennale and Urban Renewal: Evaluating Two Decades of UABB” by Doreen Heng Liu evaluates the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism (UABB) as a cultural and policy tool in the Greater Bay Area's rapid urbanization, specifically assessing its social, cultural, and environmental impacts arising from its consistent practice of urban intervention and renovating urban spaces. Through a systematic post-occupancy evaluation, the research assesses how UABB has renovated urban spaces, influenced neighborhood identity, public engagement, policy discourse, and ecological awareness.

Design Trust Impact Grant “Open House Hong Kong 2026” showcases the diverse architectural landscape of Hong Kong, deepening public knowledge and appreciation of Hong Kong's urban environment, and how thoughtful design contributes to creating a livable, inclusive, and resilient city. The festival will take place in November 2026, offering special access to a wide range of architectural sites, both typically inaccessible and those usually open to the public, enhancing engagement and providing curated experiences. Design Trust is proud to support Open House Hong Kong 2024 and 2025 edition, and continues to champion its upcoming 2026 edition as Foundation Partner.